I just found out that my ebay account was hijacked by this woman or fake person:Sarah E Early24315 Shirley DriveBella Vista CA 96008United States(530) 472-1519I have NEVER EVER clicked on one of those phishing emails and am always very careful by typing in www.ebay.com in a new window when visting the site or logging in. I can not figure out how this happened. I am freaking out. On top of that it won't let me change my account info so that her address doesn't appear anymore. From what I can tell she was trying to sell handbags using my ebay account. I swear, I am shaking. I feel like I did after my car was broken into a few years ago. Not a good way to start a Monday.Arrrugh! Has this happened to anyone else?EDITED 1:40pm:I posted the transcript from my unhelpful ebay live chat in the comments of this post, if you want to take a look. Seems to be that they think this Sarah is the real owner of the account and they can't verify I am the owner. I am tempted to shut down my account and not use ebay anoymore over this.

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posted @ 12:19 PM by claudine hellmuth::

COMMENTS:

OH GOD That is HORRIBLE! i'm so sorry that happened to you. This hasn't happened to me that I know of, but I've heard of accounts being hacked into. I really hope you get this figured out!

Yes, this happened to me and it freaked me out too. It's one thing if you're naive enough to reply back to the bogus emails, but I never did that. But someone managed to get my ebay login info (have no idea how), and they also listed a bunch of handbags with my id. I had to change my ebay password AND my email password too. So very scary!

Hi Claudine,I'm not sure how you found out about this but remember if the email is not in your "my ebay" it is not legitimate info, its a spammer. I get emails from people saying "I bought this or that and I have not received it". It is nothing I sell anyway. When I go to "My ebay" the email message is not there, so it's a spam. Does that make sense?Just never click on anything that's not in "my ebay" on the actual ebay site.

While waiting for your chat to begin, you can start typing in your question. To help us address your questions as quickly as possible, please include your email address, eBay User ID and any other pertinent information such as item numbers, error messages, etc. (if available). We may also require your name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

Your entries will become visible to the agent once they have joined the chat. Thank you for your patience.collageartist: I just found out that my ebay account was hijacked by this woman or fake person:

collageartist: this person is now using the above address as the registered main address in my ebay accountcollageartist: however ebay won't let me change my account info and take away her informationcollageartist: I have never clicked on one of those phishing emails and am always very careful. I can not figure out how this happened. I am freaking out. On top of that it won't let me change my account info so that her address doesn't appear anymore. From what I can tell she was trying to sell handbags using my ebay account.

collageartist: Z1`collageartist: sorry my cat jumped on the keyboardYour chat session has started..Arrington R.: Hello and thank you for contacting Account Security Live Help, my name is Arrington. I see that you have written some messages prior to the beginning of this chat. Please hold on as I read them.

Arrington R.: Hi Claudine! Please hold for one moment, as I will look at your eBay account now. Thank you.

collageartist: thank you

Arrington R.: Claudine, just to confirm, how long have you had access to the chellmuth@aol.com email address?

collageartist: 9 or 10 years

Arrington R.: I noticed that this account was registered to Sarah Early since this account was created back in 1999. Do you recognize this name, Claudine?

collageartist: no way? are you serious!

collageartist: there's no way that it couldhave been

collageartist: I have no idea who that is

collageartist: and I check my account info periodicly

collageartist: this is my first time seeing it

Arrington R.: I sincerely apologize. I can confirm that there has been no other registration address other than this Sarah Early's information. Claudine, I can see that you have already reported this address to our webform. Please be assured that you will be receiving a response and furhter assistance in regards to this matter very soon.

collageartist: so what do I do? do I have to close my account?

collageartist: I don't understand how this happened

Arrington R.: I find that I cannot verify you as the owner of the account in question in this chat. Prior to taking any additional action with your account, we will need to verify that you are the account owner. However, as mentioned above, please wait for the response from the correct department.

collageartist: is there a number I can call?

Arrington R.: I apologize. Please note that we do not have phone support at this time, as our focus is on online and email support.

Arrington R.: Claudine, if you wish, you may register a new eBay account at your earliest convenience.

collageartist: so there's nothing I can do? becasue as far as you can tell this lady owns my account?

collageartist: well now i'm afraid to use ebay

Arrington R.: I definitely understand your concerns in regards to this matter. You will receive further assistance and direction from the appropriate department once they have investigated this matter.

collageartist: so does this person still have access to all my account information?

collageartist: i changed my password

Arrington R.: Please be assured that this eBay account is secured at this time. The account has been temporarily restricted from sending email through Ask Seller a Question or Contact eBay Member, listing and bidding on items.

collageartist: OK

Arrington R.: Before we conclude this live help session, is there anything else I may assist you with, Claudine?

collageartist: so would it be safer for me t just close the account or wait to hear back from ebay? how long does it usually take for them to get back to you?

Arrington R.: Please wait for a response by the department/representative. You should receive a response within the next 48 hours.

collageartist: Ok thank youArrington R.: Thank you for using Live Chat, Claudine! If you would like, you can review the information I have provided. To do this, please scroll up on your chat window. You will have the opportunity to receive a transcript of this chat session and take a survey to review your experience. We appreciate your commitment to the safety of eBay's community! Have a great day, Claudine!

yes I got a bunch of spoof emails today so like I usually do, I logged into MYebay and click around looked at my account info and saw her address listed as the primary instead of mine. this is the first time ever seeing it.

and now they say it has been there since 1999 -- NO way, it hasn't.arrrugh!

Oh, I would have been a hopping mad woman all day, too. When something goes FUBAR like that, it's nearly impossible for me to deal with day-to-day things. I require efficiency!! LOL I do NOT like loose ends or unusual, unchangeable things which may or may not pose a large threat to me (especially financially). And, that LiveHelp session sounded basically worthless. Either there was some huge glitch in eBay's system upgrades that transported another account holder's info to you, or someone is very adept at infiltrating and changing eBay info. Regardless, for the LiveHelp tech to say that the other address/info has been there since the beginning in YOUR account suggests there are some pretty big security holes in eBay's system. Even THEY can't see the changes made?!?!? Yikes. Do keep us posted. I use eBay regularly and have been less than satisfied with their support results. I'd like to know how this gets resolved because it sounds ridiculous. It's as if you went to the doctor complaining of a headache and wanted to know what was going on so you could fix it and feel better. The doctor runs a bunch of tests, takes plenty of your time and comes back to you with, "You are not feeling well because you have a headache." to which you can only reply, "No s**t."

I wouldn't blame you if you had to cancel the account. I do hope this gets resolved to your liking before that has to happen, though.

claudine that is so scary. i would love to think this is just a case of computer snafu but maybe someone really did hack into your account. waiting up to 48 hours to resolve sounds like a bad idea to me...imagine how much fraud can go on in a 48 hour period. I do know someone else who this happened to and she had to rename her account and yes it was a hassle. bummer.i think the on line chat sounds like a computer...not a real person.

Hi Claudine; this happened to me a couple of months ago...someone stole my account and was using it to sell bogus farm equipment with 24-hour auctions (I presume he/she would collect the $$$ and not deliver, of course, leaving the whole shebang in my lap). I found out because the listing notices were sent to my e-mail address. In my case, I had let my guard down and responded to a phish message regarding becoming a "power seller" a couple of weeks earlier.

EBay live chat was able to take care of the problem pretty quickly. They diabled my account immediately and then had me change the password soon afterwards. I was able to keep my eBay name. In my case, the thief wanted to hide behind my identity so wouldn't want any of his info on my account.

My biggest fear was that the thief would get into my Paypal account since it's linked to eBay, although the Paypal account was apparently secure.

The whole thing is scary. Now I change my Ebay and Paypal passwords every month or so. It's my impression that the techs at eBay are adept at handling these kinds of things but I wonder at what point the crooks will get ahead of the game.

Do you think that Ebay might have inadvertently allowed someone to open an account with the same name as yours?

AHH! That is soooo maddening! And the patronizing, unhelpful "help" person just makes it worse. If only I were admitted to practice law in Florida, why, I'd sue them for you!! For your emotional distress, you certainly deserve some really good treats tomorrow!"Bella Vista"? Hmph! Bigga Liar is more like it...

WOW, that is some scary stuff!! I am just glad that you don't use it often (because then it would be even more frustrating to you). I can't imagine how they could have gotten in. I am always good about not responding too, so makes me think I should check frequently to make sure all is ok with my account. Keep us posted!!!

Hey ClaudineWe can find out how far Bella Vista is from Los Angeles and pay a "visit" to this person..."I got connections..."In all seriousness, this is very scary. I can't believe that ebay takes 180 days to close your account. WHAT are they thinking!?!??! It's good that you are posting this on your blog so that people can see the truth.But if you still want us to "pay her a visit..." *ahem*;)

thanks Kelly. LOL! I think it's a fake address and fake phone number. I have tried calling many times.

it's def my account that was hijacked because it also has my address and info and my email address etc in there.

now that i have closed the account, it's frozen so no one can do anything with it. it's kind of sad, i had that account since 1999.

if you want some scary reading, read the ebay message boards, they talk about phishers using links IN AN AUCTION to gather information, so you think you are just re-logging in to bid on an auction but it's a phish.

here's the link if you want to freak yourself out:http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000260663&tstart=0&mod=1164130065025

Oh, that is horrible... really, really scary. There is no excuse for eBay not having better security and more helpful support. I'm glad you posted this; I am definitely more aware and weary of using eBay now.